Effective December 6, 2010, Canon will start to provide as a chargeable service, a locking mode dial modification for the Ã¢â‚¬Å“EOS 5D MarkIIÃ¢â‚¬Â and Ã¢â‚¬Å“EOS 7DÃ¢â‚¬Â digital single-lens reflex cameras.

This modification is available, for a fee, to owners of these cameras who would prefer a Mode Dial which locks in place and canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be accidentally moved during normal camera operation.

For USA residents, the pricing of the locking mode dial modification service for EOS 5D Mark II and 7D cameras has been set at $100 per camera as of December, 2010. (Pricing and availability subject to change without notice.) For further details, see contact information for inquiries below.

Once modified, users must first press and hold down the central lock-release button in order to turn the Mode Dial. The modification is intended to prevent the Mode Dial from accidentally moving, once set to a particular exposure mode by the user.

DetlevCM

Personally in my experience I can't see a use for it on the 5D MK II - or at least my mode dial only changes when I touch it to change something - but with the 7D where the on/off switch sits below the dial I can see the point of it.

A question from my side - I'll assume it won't affect the weather sealing?

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MOT

This is great. I have on occassion found that I somehow changed from manual to bulb by accident, and because I wasn't prepared for that missed out on a shot. However, one of my favorite shots was created by this accident, haha. In any case, I will be getting it.

Having used a 60D for a day rental, it was something I wish my 5Dii had as well. But not for $100. I might go after it for half that, but I'm wondering how long it will take as well. I'm betting longer than a week, which is not ideal around the holidays.

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IllegalFun

I wish it was available on all the cameras...I keep knocking from my usual Av to the TV or M modeshowever at $100 it is a bit expensive... and a Â£1200 for a 7D and Â£1600 for a 5D Mk2 they should upgrade any coming out of the factory for free

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the camera boy

I worked at a camera store for 11 years and can't tell you how ofter we had eos A2 and eos 10s bodies with this lock all jammed up. I got pretty good at fixing them. Hope Canon has a new better lock than back then.

bengershon

Well, this is most annoying. I really cannot imagine it would take an engineer more than 10 minutes to do this, but this is what I received this morning from Canon UK:

"Thank you for the recent email you sent to Canon. Unfortunately we are unable to do this Modification as a while you wait service. It would need to be booked in as a repair and will take roughly 5-7 working days to be done."

niftyken

This dial has accidentally rotated without my noticing more than a handful of times when I'm wearing the camera on a strap with the dial bumping against my hip when I'm walking around. Even then, I'm not sure I care to pay $100 to upgrade it. Usually the resulting exposures are enough to inform me that something is not right.